Are we great yet?

“Whoever comes in is going to have to argue against these monster growth numbers, 3.2 percent GDP. That is what most people are talking about around the kitchen table.” Kellyanne Conway

Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s political advisor, had a busy weekend praising the U.S. economic miracle of the current administration, trying to defend Trump’s comments on the 2017 Charlottesville white nationalist Ku Klux Klan rally. Conway is not an economist, but she knows how to change the subject. Using fantastical thinking, she says it is all due to Trump’s awesome deals.

Surprisingly, the mainstream media does not understand what the gross domestic product (GDP) says. They seem to believe anything over 2.2 percent is amazing. It is not. Let’s dig in.

GDP is an irrelevant measure of economic greatness dating back to 1934 when manufacturing was the main driver of the economy. At that time, making, selling, and exporting products was a good thing. It did not matter where the raw materials came from or the pollution created in the process.

GDP is the sum of consumption, investment, government spending, and net exports. The U.S. Commerce Department reports the quarterly change in GDP using the best estimates at the time. Conway gets excited with big numbers, but if Trump builds a $25 billon Wall or more nuclear weapons (increasing government spending), GDP would increase!

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., wrote about GDP in “Crimes against nature: How George W. Bush and his corporate pals are plundering the country and hijacking our democracy,” 2004. Kennedy wrote, “The government has borrowed $9 trillion from our children and looted our Treasury, poisoned our water and air, destroyed our public lands, and sacrificed our health – all to enrich the wealthy few.”

The U.S. public debt has increased $2 trillion under Trump in just two years, and is now over $22 trillion, its highest level in history. Trump will need to get approval from Congress to raise the debt ceiling that expired on March 1. The U.S. Treasury can’t borrow any more. This is an abnormal situation, please look for coins or your kid’s piggy bank, and send whatever you can to Steven Mnuchin.

The corruption at the White House has created a dysfunctional administration ignoring the law and the boundaries of power. Trump has been telling Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, how to set monetary policy!

Going back in time

The U.S. used to import steel and crude oil and export automobiles, refrigerators, dishwashers, computers, and many other products. The current U.S. economy is driven by banking, health care, retail, insurance, accounting, education, and many other services.

Trump has taken the U.S. back to the past promoting steel and aluminum manufacturing, mining, timber, coal, oil, and gas exports. He has broken most trade agreements using tariffs and economic sanctions to bully his way. He will be remembered as the one who pulled out of the 2015 U.N. Climate Agreement while building seawalls to protect his property.

U.S. consumers will pay for the 25 percent import tariffs – a hidden tax on everything made outside the U.S.

More trees, fewer holes

Trouble in the oil patch. The number of barrels for Permian wells was 25 percent under forecast. For the last five years, 13 percent of the wells drilled were abandoned, with no deadline to plug them, with methane emissions around the clock.

Please ask Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson to stop the proposed Highland Pellets South mill and the Sun Bio Arkadelphia Shandong cardboard mill. The UK Drax power station is burning our forests at a rate of 138,000 acres per year with more than 20 pellet mills in the Southeast. Deadly diesel emissions from logging trucks making daily deliveries account for nearly half of all nitrogen dioxide and more than two-thirds of all particulate matter emissions.

Rise up

Like the Extinction Rebellion in the U.K., we must stop deforestation and fracking to cut carbon dioxide and methane emissions.

A fracking ban in the U.K. is imminent. The shale gas commissioner resigned last week due to new regulations on earthquakes. Fracking is a loser’s gamble, a hole in your pocket.

Dr. Luis Contreras